[CC] Honey, can we break the bear? A beorning revamp tale

The bear is solid, we’ve got monumental dps and are fairly effective group members. Vastin might be coming for my critter comics soon. If the current bear, outside of anything but landscape, only needs a few quality of life fixes. Please break my bear.

Incase you want to skip to a part.

Usefull, but sometimes we’re out of honey

Index
1 -Current state of an unfinished class + examples
2 -Beornings overlaps in playstyles and trait lines
3 – Core changes to a beorning for a successful revamp
4 – Obvious bug fixes (aka betabear)
5 – Putting back the pieces for beorning 2.0
6 – Mighty morphin power beorning, the 6-form dual armor bear

1 – But everyone says the bear is broken
The beorning isn’t broken. The bear is just so bogged down in unfinished and counterproductive mechanics. Any time you are in human form you want to be in bear form, but to do too many activities in bear form you’re back into pants. This is best illustrated just with some examples, but isn’t limited to just these.

Tanking
Being a bear gives you the morale and critical defense you will need to be on par with other tank classes. While other classes can now start using their skills to get aggro. You kinda don’t want to use skills cause they cost wrath which you need it to stay in bear form. Any time spend in human form opens you up to dying a lot easier.

The trick to to being a better bear-tank is to know when you can do nothing. It’s counter intuitive to being fun, engaging and protecting your group. The best time you tank isn’t when you tank.

2 – Skill rotations are filled with do nothing moments
While other classes have a double set of skills that build resources in all sort of moments. A hunter can use interrupts, long cooldown skills, short or long inductions to build up focus. Any attack by a warden will get him further in his gambits. How many times as a beorning have you swing your club into the air to just get the wrath? Or used hearten while you didn’t need a heal to just get that 20 wrath over time before switching to bear? It’s not like the class is flushed with skills at any point.

Even skills that are supposed to provide a positive boost to switching between forms are losing most of their boost by shifting. The skill Expose provides two different buffs when used in both forms. But with the skill, a cry, one of two wrath builders, switching to bear form, expose again you’re already down 6 seconds of the 1st skill boost. Hit thrash 3 times, cleanse or some healing roars to get them on cooldown and the human form boost is already gone. Just by keeping this skill up you’re losing another 5 seconds of skills you’d in other cases don’t use. It’s just not worth it.

3 – So how do we fix the beorning?
Not with some light fixes. Nearly every part of a bear is missing it’s identity for that part cause it overflows into their other trait lines and forms. A blue guardian is a tank, that can get extra tricks from red or yellow. While a dps guard is red with extra defenses from blue or aoe from yellow. Or he goes yellow and mixes up red and blue to suit his playstyle or instance. same with any class that has had their class balance already. Each line had his identity and just got them more emphasized. A beorning has 3 lines and 2,5 forms that all interact and conflict with each other. Even more in any specific situation.

The best times a bear has is in those moment he gets a chance to align 3 strong points while the negatives don’t mind. No dps, no aggro, but all the healing in the ettenmoors (just don’t expect to do anything else). Take hits and just survive without needing to protect or attack in Aom T2C on boss 2 only.

Break the current class and rebuild it with the pieces you’ll get
All the parts of a great beorning are already in the game. We just need to rewire the bear. SOme of which are already taken a look at by Vastin, but i’d like to take it even further.

Remove survivability as a core class mechanic
1. the survivability costs us options to excel due to balance issues with other classes
2. Lower personal healing and remove the need to keep hearten up
Rework the roles that shapeshifting has
1. human and bear form feel like a 2ndary traitline that counteracts the reason you’re are in your main traitline often.
2. The reason to shapeshift shouldn’t be to not be in the other form. Provide a positive effect instead of making it feels bad to be in human form while tanking.
3. Provide a positive reason to shapefist or allow us to be in our desired form for the occasion. Longer bearforms or not make us regret being in human form.
Make each traitline feel more unique in more situations by adding more risks and rewards to each
1. It’s ok to be a bad dpser in a tank spec, but blue feels like a selfious yellow line.
2. Yellowline is a bad redline if you’re not in a party that needs healing
3. Redline is a squishy bluebear that can’t heal other far too often

4 – The bear necessities bug fixes
Beyond the underlying issues the bear has plenty of bugs and no beorning comment is complete without it ofcourse. So i’ll give you the bear minimum of these

A combat ress that can rez in combat
A healing legendary carving that actually boost healing
Cooldowns that show the correct cooldown such as relentless maul
A healing skill that actually gives healing aggro
A Rush skill you actually use when you need to rush (not waiting to build up wrath before the fight to do be in bear form any use bearskills)
Roar skills you use. Nearly every yellow background skill has such a limited use.
Either give us more legendary traits or make agility better for a bear so i can use might, vitality, fate and agility on my legendary weapon

5 – The right to arm bears with unique playstyles
Make the bear a true hybrid class that comes close to the others. Use all the pieces available in lotro to make a class worth paying and playing. Feel free to use any parts of this in the beorning revamp.

The first 6 traitline dual armour class

Step 1 remove build in sturdiness from bearform.
Step 2 Add heavy armour and critical defense to Might
Step 3 Lower or remove tactical mastery boost from might and add it to will. And add a slight boost to physical mastery to Will
Step 4 Replace the wrath resources with a calm/rage attunement style mechanic

Create 3 separate traitlines in each of the trifecta and supplement them with the human and bear form. Make each of the 6 parts a building block in the glorious beorning empire and have them supplement instead of counteract the player in what he wants to do.

Blue line – Tanking
Yellow line – Healing
Red line – neutral base dps
Human form – calm minded nature class
Bear form – berserker class/crusader thorn

Human form a calm minded form with its roots in nature. Squishy in it’s light armour relying on its knowledge of its surrounding with its tactical mastery.

A light armour class that depends on tactical mastery to be attained from will
Provide better tactical decision in single target such as healing and use of CC and bees on specific mobs
Removes sturdiness, aoe dps and raw power in favour of above par single target skills

A beorning forced to fight for it’s survival slowly succumbing to its natural rage. Fight and punish enemies for harming him and the world around him.

A heavy armour class depending on his physical prowess from Might
Provides a better physical experience in reflecting damage, raw power in the form of conal frontal attacks
The more it get attacks the more it strikes back. Add a release mechanic for build up warth in execute.
Remove single target healing and cc in favour of reflect and aoe damage. Added sturdiness from heavy armour, parry and evade from might.

Instead of a wrath build mechanic use a runekeeper style attunement mechanic with Calm vs Rage instead of DPS vs healing

Nature minded from human form adds boost to healing and tactical damage.
- Providing a pay off and positive reason to stay in human form in for example yellow line, but only provide short term boost in blue line
- Adds single target dps to a single target focussed red line build.
Enraged attunement provides raw power in bear form, but no bonus to human form skills
- Aoe healing power in yellow line while in bear form
- Extra reflect or resources in blue line
- Raw power in redline, but without the reflect from blue you take more damage
- A release mechanic for full rage such as Execute in red line
Add a “payload” to bees, make bees an expert player skill by make them lower defenses or a small morale leech for the party.
Add a small timed boost to skills after shapeshifting like a the hunterstances provide. A 10% boost to healing or bees effect in human form or 10% more reflect or damage when switching to bear form

6- A unique bear that can morph into anything you or a your group needs
Each of the traitlines in blue, red and yellow provide the normal with rank, heal and dps. But with the options players get in with both form and the positive effects that each has to their effects an average beorning will still remain valid in normal landscape. While at the same time allowing players to provide an enhanced boost to whichever role they desire to take in a group or higher difficulty.

A blue bear in heavy armour will be the best option to tank, but a mixed blue human/bear might be a better option for an experienced player that knows when and where to use the human form to get the extra boosts.

Single target healing and other “in control” skills such as CC are the best in human form with full tactical mastery provides by will. In emergency situations the aoe heals will still be there in bear form, but never as good as a raw raged filled bear.

While in redline will give you a good baseline dps, but enhanced by either choice to go for ST or aoe with either side slightly better if going focussed on one type. Or a median with a combined armour package.

All in all, a class package that runs the easy to play, but hard to master line to the max. Opening up the way to customise your playstyle without interfering or overpowering other classes. A true hybrid class build for the future. Even beyond the revamp the developers don’t have to worry about gear, set bonus or mechanics open to exploits. As the Beorning is now build on a solid foundation the game is run on. With boosts that come from traits and gear that are easy to expand, limit or change. Reign in the beorning healing compared to a runekeeper? Change the single target traits. Self-heals too strong in tank stance? Lower tactical mastery gained from might etc etc.

It may take some time to get the numbers right, but please break the current lump of bear traits down and rebuild a Mighty morphin power bear.

Down with Bears

Tired of big bear butt’s in your face while trying to fight?

Tired of getting Mauled in the ‘Moors?

Tired of leaves flying in your face every time that darn Beorning changes into a bear…now man…now bear…man..bear…ahhhh!!!!

Then stop down at Teriadwyn’s “Down with Bears Support Center.”

We’ll help you get all that sticky honey out of your gear.

We’ll lead those bees back to Grimbeorn.

Listen to Chef Vrarz’s pan seared cooking sessions to get your mind of Beornings.

Located just down the street from Lalia’s Market.

A big shout out to Zygnor for the awesome store front picture! Thanks Zygnor!

LOTRO Store Sales 12/19/14 – 12/25/14

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Drac Says – Your a bear.. You maul people, whats not to love

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Warden Class

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Character Slots

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Slayer Deed Accelerators

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Drac Says – Anything that helps the grind

Yule Festival is here! Now – Jan. 13th

LOTRO Beorning Class First Impressions: Bearable

Note: This post first appeared on Gaming Conversations on 11/23/2014

The beorning class, or some kind of new class, has been a long time coming in Lord of the Rings Online. It’s been since 2008 and the release of the Mines of Moria expansion that a new class of people has graced the digital recreation of Middle-Earth. There are several things to consider in LOTRO when deciding to add a new class. Besides the obvious business implications (will enough people pay for the class or re-sub to play the class to make development investment worthwhile?), LOTRO must also consider how a new class will fit into the all-important LOTR Lore, and how the balance and systems currently within the game will be affected. A beorning on a war-steed? How exactly will that work? Also, will players want to take a new class through 100 levels of established content in a game that is notorious for its slow leveling?

While it’s fairly clear by the frequent updates (the update dropped Nov 5 and the 2nd patch is already on the beta server less than 2 weeks later) that the beorning was not fully baked when released, it’s also apparent that a lot of work went into the class. It includes it’s own starter area, class quests, class-specific skills and skill trees. No shortcuts have been made in the skill trees, which include 3 specific and unique lines (tank, DPS and support).

Early reports of the Beorning have been very good. I can attest that at the early levels, the class is interesting, if overpowered. Following are some of my observations through the first 20 or so levels:

THE STARTER AREA IS SHORT, BUT WELL DONE

I was certainly glad that I didn’t have to be rescued from a jail cell again, and that the starter area ties in very well with the established lore. You get to speak with Grimbeorn about the importance of the history of your line. You are called to duty by Rhadagast the Brown, which pulls you neatly into the LOTRO universe previously established. You get to see the Carrock (from a distance) which is just one more iconic Tolkien landmark to check off the list. Once you complete a specific deed, you are able to earn the “return to Grinbeorn’s lodge” skill so that you can return to visit the Vales of Anduin whenever you like. This is nice, because your time questing in this area is very short. It’s probably the one gripe I have about it.

BEARS ARE OVERPOWERED. OF COURSE THEY ARE, THEY’RE BEARS!

Granted, I’ve been playing duo with my wife (don’t mess with a momma bear, btw), but the first 20 levels have been exceedingly easy with this class. In many ways it feels like a leather-wearing champion from the standpoint that you can pretty much charge in to multiple mobs and expect a decent outcome. This is partially because of the wrath system, which builds by using specific skills in-combat, and then can be consumed by using powerful attacks while in bear form. So, the more mele skills you can fire off in human form, the longer you can sustain bear form and really raise Cain. Beornings also seem very hearty for medium-armour wearers. I think this may have to do with their main stat being might, which also counts towards physical mitigations. In all, I don’t have much of a problem with this class being OP, since from a lore perspective, you’d expect them to be some of the most savage and wild beings in Middle-Earth. One thing I do find a bit strange, is that on the character creation screen, the beorning is listed as an “advanced” class, while the champion has always been considered “basic”. This is puzzling considering the similarities in combat mechanics and difficulty. Perhaps the differences will become more pronounced in the later levels.

FEEL MY WRATH

While I think that the new wrath mechanic works well for this race/class, I’m still unsure why it was developed separate from the fervor system used by champions. They seem to behave identically, with the exception that the “wrath” scale is much larger (this one goes to 100!) than the fervor scale, which only goes up to five. Still, this seems like something that could have been solved with math, using scaling ratios so that fervor builds and decreases more slowly for beornings than it does for champions. At any rate, gone is the need for power for beornings. This probably solved some complexities with regards to balancing the wrath/power consumption, but it introduced others. Gear, quest rewards, and drops all contain items that benefit power for characters, whether it be stats or potions. These are now useless for boernings. I suppose it could be argued that with changes that have occurred over the last year that power is no longer much of a consideration for any class, but I’d still prefer that it remain consistent. Either include it for the beorning, or remove it entirely.

FIGHT WITH MIGHT

I mentioned earlier that might is the stat of choice for beornings. This actually makes a lot of common sense, and does have mitigation advantages. Really, the only problem I have with this choice is that it is a complete reversal from the major changes made to the burglar and warden (which were also based on might at one time) not long ago. The reason those changes were made was to enable LOTRO to simplify development of gear. If all medium armour wearers have the same main stat, then fewer pieces of gear would have to exist in the game. Now, just a few months down the road, all of that work is being eschewed in favor of increased diversity in classes again. This type of frequent direction change just smacks of individual developers making their own decisions regardless of the overall direction of the game. That’s how it feels to me, anyway. Once a developer leaves, or is told to leave, the next dev either has no history on which to base his/her decisions, or just doesn’t care because the originator of the previous direction is no longer around. On a positive note, this could also mean that if you’re unhappy with the current direction of the game, sticking around long enough might reap benefits.

MOAR BEAR!

I like turning into a bear. There, I said it. Building wrath in human form in order to turn into one (incredible hulk style!) also seems to make perfect sense. One thing that I mentioned in my video above is that I would like to be able to remain in bear form for the duration of a long battle. I can’t imagine Beorn flipping back and forth during the Battle of Five Armies because he got less wrathful with each swipe and roar. Personally, I would like to see wrath only degenerate out-of-combat, as a beorning in-combat certainly would be able to maintain his/her unbridled wrath as long as the fight endured. I’m told that there are skills available at the higher levels of the beorning that make wrath decay more slowly so that the bear form becomes a longer-term possibility. I hope this is true. Perhaps I’ll write up a higher-level beorning post once I level up a bit.

That probably sounded like a lot of complaining, but overall I’m enjoying the class. I’ll admit that most of my grievances are fairly nit-picky. I think overall, the launch of the beorning has been a bit of a boon for LOTRO. I see renewed interest within YouTube and among the community that I haven’t noticed since prior to the Helm’s Deep expansion. I look forward to trying out the red and yellow skill lines in the future!

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LOTRO Tweets Mysterious Beorning-like Image

Lord of the Rings Online dropped a surprise on us today, randomly tweeting out a picture of a Turbine employee working on the game:

LOTRO Tweet

The text simply says “The LOTRO team is hard at work today.”. Maybe it is just a random tweet of a game dev with his nose to the grind. But why tweet this image today? Aren’t game developers always hard at work? Upon closer inspection, I believe that the release of this image is more contrived than random. Take a look at the character model on the right-hand monitor. This human-like model is too tall to be a dwarf, but too thick to be a man. Is this our first glimpse of the new beorning class? And what is that landscape image on the left-hand monitor? Click on the larger image below and let us know what you think!

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